The five-time defending Big West Conference men’s tennis champion UC Santa Barbara continued its dominance over league opponents on Sunday with a 5-2 road victory over UC Davis.
The Gauchos (4-3 overall, 2-0 Big West) have won three consecutive matches during the 2021 season and, including conference tournament play, with the win over the Aggies (6-7, 1-1), they have won 37-straight matches against league opponents dating back to an April 25, 2014 loss to Cal Poly.
UCSB’s 37th straight league win got off to a good start with a victory in doubles.
After failing to claim the doubles point in ther first three matches this season, the Gauchos secured the point for the fourth consecutive match in the win over Davis.
The first contest off the court was a 6-3 win at No. 1 by Stefano Tsorotiotis and Alejandro Vedri, who topped Ivan Thamma and David Goulak, 6-3. The point was secured with a victory by Joseph Guillin and Kai Brady at No. 3. The Santa Barbara tandem defeated Chethan Swanson and Dariush Jalali, 6-4.
“That team (Guillin and Brady) is undefeated at No. 3 doubles,” said head coach Marty Davis. “We were also really happy and comfortable with the result at No. 1 doubles. It’s a very good thing that we are competing for the doubles point in every match.”
UCSB continuted to roll in singles.
At No. 4, freshman Pablo Masjuan was the first off the board with a 6-1, 6-3 trouncing of Andras Necz. Guillin was next up, and he gave his team a 3-0 edge with a 6-2, 6-3 sweep over Thamma.
Brady took advantage of his entry in the starting lineup with his second win at No. 6, defeating Arjith Jayaraman, 6-4, 6-2.
“We were up 4-0,” Davis said. “So the three-set matches were shortened to super-tiebreakers. If we had played them out, the score might have been different.”
At No. 3, Victor Krustev clinched the Gauchos’ third straight win with a 5-7, 6-4, 10-6 win. At No. 2, Tsorotiotis fell in a tiebreaker (4-7, 7-6, 10-4), as did Vedri at No. 5 (6-3, 4-6, 10-5).
“If we play those out, the result is probably different,” Davis said. “But overall this was a good match for us.”